You can't have your cake and eat it too

I routinely see and hear people protesting the cost of gasoline and or diesel, and in the next breath, protesting methods used to extract the oil from which these are made due to environmental concerns.

Do they not know that the only oil left is increasingly difficult to find and inherently dangerous to produce?

Aberdeen, Scotland â€” Total SA’s efforts to stem a natural-gas leak on a North Sea platform gathered pace Sunday after an onboard flare that had hampered relief plans finally went out, but the French company still faces weeks, if not months, of challenging and expensive work to end the crisis.

The end of the flare, which went out late Friday, has cut one major explosion risk, but some 200,000 cubic meters a day of highly explosive hydrocarbons are still spraying out of the wellhead platform into the atmosphere, and Total’s crisis-management team is working around the clock to solve the problem.

The company’s North Sea headquarters in Aberdeen was abuzz with activity late Sunday, as spill-response specialists and Total staff members came and went.

[…]

Specialized crews from Wild Well Controlâ€”the company made famous for helping tackle the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Kuwait’s raging oil firesâ€”are expected to board the abandoned platform in “one or two days,” said Total spokesman Andrew Hogg. Once aboard, they will conduct an initial reconnaissance of the vessel before attempting to secure the area so that workers can safely begin a “top kill” operation, where heavy mud is dropped into the problem well in the hope that sufficient downward pressure is exerted to stop the flow of gas.

Total is also proceeding with a separate plan to drill two relief wells to divert the flowing gas, with drilling rigs being moved into position, although these could take as long as six months to complete.

Initial relief drilling work is expected to begin around April 8, said Mr. Hogg.